The other night, we ordered in from one of our favorite Thai restaurants to kick off a night of game-playing with some friends. I had my favorite, fried rice with tofu, and LeeLee had the green curry. But what really stuck in my mind was our friend Tom’s pad thai. So when the rain washed out our back yard today (no grilling? Whatever will we do?) and we found ourselves short on time (it IS a Tuesday night, after all), I decided to pull out a recipe I’d tucked away several weeks ago and put it to good use.
I’ve gotta say, this turned out better than I expected it to! The peanut sauce and seasoning packet (just one packet out of the two ramen packages, mind you) made an excellent marinade, and the tofu really pulled in the flavors. As it caramelized in the pan, I brought my noodle water to boil and plunked the ramen in for a quick bath. By the time it was ready, so was the tofu, and after a minute or two of mixing in the pan, the pad thai was ready!
And it really was good. This dish tasted like it took much longer to make than it really did, which is always a plus. And I really loved the flavors. We’ll be trying it again, for sure!
The stats:
Tofu: $1.50 ($0.75/person)
Ramen (two packages): $0.58 ($0.29/person)
Peanut sauce: $2.99 ($1.50/person)
GRAND TOTAL: $5.07 … or $2.54 per person.
:)